Kolakata marches against rape

KOLKATA: "Don't tell me how to dress. Tell them not to rape," cried a poster in a rally in the city on Thursday that was attended by women from all walks of life — students , homemakers, elderly citizens — to protest the increasing rate of crime against woman in the country. Black bands were tied on their arms and mouths to "mark the death of humanity" , but the posters they carried condemned the heinous act of rape in Delhi, describing it as "repulsive" , "abhorring" and "poisonous" .

The rally was an initiative taken by the Moitree Awareness Organization and the citizens of Kolkata.

"There is no solution until the mentality of people changes. There should be fast-track courts for crime against women ," said Amitabh Ghosh, an advocate of the Calcutta high court.

Ratna Mandal, a yoga teacher, added: "We, the common man, are in the midst of a crisis where on one side we worship Durga Ma as the mother divine and on the other crimes against women are rising at an alarming rate."

More such rallies have been planned in the city over the weekend. While a candle march will be taken out from Esplanade on Saturday with the demand of capital punishment for rapists, the Sunday's rally at JU will address "India's normalized misogyny that leads to such attacks" .